Never vote for these Lehigh Valley traitors

TOWN SQUARE

I will be providing you with some prime material for your refrigerator today. Get out a magnet and scissors so you're ready to anchor it in a prime location for review next year and every two years at election time.

The Lehigh Valley has been largely intact for 40 years of congressional redistricting. Now almost half of Northampton County has been severed under the outrageous Republican gerrymandering plan passed Tuesday, and the biggest beneficiaries are Republicans Lou Barletta and Charlie Dent. They deserve as much scorn as everyone can heap on them.

If Dent had been screaming to everyone who would listen that it was imperative to keep the Lehigh Valley intact, I'd have been the first to congratulate him.

He didn't. I'd love to see voters punish him for that, but assuming this plan isn't overturned in court — and I have little faith in our politically cooperative state appellate courts to do that, even though some districts look like coffee spills and the required first two readings in the Senate were of a blank bill — his district will be so Republican-heavy that it's unlikely he'll pay at the polls.

Still, I don't want to focus this column on Dent or even on Barletta, the prime beneficiary because of his perceived vulnerability in the nongerrymandered 11th District. Their fingerprints are on the 15th District's murder weapon, but they didn't get a vote. Here's where your refrigerator comes in.

I mentioned last week that state Sens. PAT BROWNE, BOB MENSCH and DAVID ARGALL, all Republicans, voted for this stinking stealth plan. Their names will appear in capital letters in this space until they retire — or preferably, are retired by voters — from state office.

This week's votes in the state House provided us with a new group of legislators whose names you should also remember well. There were three key votes, and as far as I'm concerned, anyone who voted the wrong way on any of them deserves to be memorialized as a traitor to his or her constituents in the once-united Lehigh Valley.

I struggled over which districts to include, since The Morning Call area is much broader than Lehigh and Northampton counties. Ultimately, I decided to zero in on those whose districts are based in Lehigh and Northampton, and on the final vote.

Still, let's run through all the votes. First, on a Democratic plan that among other repairs would have ensured that all but a tiny portion of Lehigh and Northampton would be in one congressional district, which failed 108-85, every Republican present voted no, including Gary Day, Joe Emrick, Marcia Hahn, Julie Harhart and Justin Simmons. Doug Reichley was absent.

On a proposal to at least postpone voting on the stealth plan until it could be publicly discussed and improved, it was a unified GOP front again, with Reichley there to vote no. The result was 111-83.

The final plan passed 136-61, with several Philadelphia Democrats, among others, joining the supporters because the ridiculous remapping in their area solidified the self-interests of a few Democratic congressmen. Local Democrats Joe Brennan, Bob Freeman, Jennifer Mann and Samuelson all voted no, joined by Republicans Hahn, Simmons and Emrick. Before you congratulate those last three, understand that the GOP leadership almost certainly gave them a hall pass because they're in their first full terms and perceived as more vulnerable. Their other votes still stamp them as party toadies who betrayed their district.

Running through the rest of the area delegation's final vote, only Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, another first-termer with a pass, voted no.

So, which Lehigh and Northampton state House members betrayed their constituents by mutilating their region? Which names should be displayed prominently on your refrigerators for years to come?

They are GARY DAY, JULIE HARHART and DOUG REICHLEY.

Reichley is a lame duck, a newly elected judge who is busy at the moment putting the arm on local lawyers to help pay off his campaign debt, an abominable practice that fits the ethics of this vote perfectly.

But we still have GARY DAY and JULIE HARHART, one of whom represents my legislative district. I'm a registered Republican, and it will bring me great pleasure to pull the lever forever for whichever opponent comes against this traitor in the primary or general elections.

I hope all of you will do the same for DAY, HARHART, BROWN, MENSCH and ARGALL. Help them understand that arrogance and treachery do have consequences. And while you're at it, take Hahn, Simmons and Emrick down with them.